Saddle Creek
Chances are you’ve heard Neva Dinova’s third album You May Already be Dreaming before. The band name lyrics song titles and even the chords might have been different but you’ve heard this album before. It might have been by one of Neva Dinova’s labelmates like Bright Eyes. Maybe it was Okkervil River singing about a black sheep or Songs: Ohia’s ruminations on the trials of life or the Jayhawks in the early ’90s. Heck maybe it was Gram Parsons way back in the ’70s. Safe to say you’ve heard the outsider countrified folk-rock Neva Dinova offer on Dreaming.
Luckily just because it’s familiar doesn’t mean Dreaming isn’t good. It has a well-developed dark mood to it that creates an uncomfortable eerie quality. Whether it’s the death obsession that permeates “Will the Ladies Send You Flowers?” the hopelessness of the narrator on “Squirrels” or the dejection that fuels “She’s a Ghost” Dreaming bubbles over with brooding feel. Again it’s nothing you haven’t heard from an album with a country influence before but it’s well executed and feels genuine. If you listen carefully you might even notice that “Clouds” and “A Man and His Dreaming” have hints of shoegaze atmospherics swirling throughout which only helps nurture the album’s bleak disposition. It’s all a bit familiar but what’s the harm in listening again?
